Improved method of lighting gas by galvanic electricity



UNITED STATES W. W. HOPKINS,

PATENT @Erica 0F AMELIA, OHIO.

IMPROVED METHOD OF LIGHTING GAS BY GALVANIC AELECTRICITY. i

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 22,952, dated February l5, 18H).

Toall whom it 'may concern:

Be it known that I, W. W. HorKINs, of Amelia, in the county of Clermont and State of Ohio, have invented a new and improved apparatus for letting on gas to burners and lighting and shutting ed' the same by electricity; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact discription of the saine, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure lis a side view of a' gas pipe and burner with my apparatus applied. Fig. 2 is a'central vertical section ofthe same. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section in the line xwof Fig. 2.

Similar letters ot' reference indicate correspendingV parts in the several figures.

To enable others skilled inthe art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A is a permanent magnet, composed of two or more hars placed side by side and united y by screws a a or other means, each ot' said bars being grooved longitudinallyin such a manner that when united together their grooves combine to forma passage, b, throughout the whole length.

B is the burner, screwed onto the permanent magnet so that its passage c forms a continuation of the passage b.

C is a valve-chamber, ma'de of brass or other unmagnetic substance, of cylindrical form, and having the permanent magnet A screwed into its upper end, and the iron pipe D, by which lthe gas is supplied, screwed into its lower end.

E is the electro-magneticvalve, made of iron, ot' a size and form to move freely up and down within the chamber C and to leave apassage or passages between it and the sides of said chamber, and to be supported on the bottom ot' the said chamber, or on the top of the supply-pipe D, and to enter a considerable distance into the supply-pipe, `so as to present a considerable attractive surface to said pipe withcutrequirin git to be very large and heavy.

By making thevalve of considerable depth it is also caused to present a greater surface to the attractive force of the permanent magnet when it is up against the bottom of said magnet, which constitutes its seat. The said valve has a cavity in the top to receive a globule of quicksilver, d, for the purpose of insuring its closing perfectly the lower orifice ot' the passage b when up toits seat at the bottom ofthe permanent magnet. The depth of 'the valve-chamber is such that when the valve is at the bottom, of it the attraction of the per .manent magnet A is not of itself sufficiently powerful to raise it. f

The mouth of the supply-pipe D has notches c c cut in its sides, for the passage of the gas around thervalve when the latter is down at the bottom of the chamber.

F is the copper conductingwire of the battery which I employ to effect the operation,

lC, to convert the iron valve into an electro-I magnet, and passing near the top of the burner,

short piece of finer platinum wire, f, which is situated above and so near the outer ,orifice of the burner that the gas in issuing therefrom will impinge upon it.

The battery employed must be furnished with a pole-changer to change the polarity of the ends of the extremities Of-'the conductingcircuit.

4The operation is as follows: To let on the gas the circuit is closed with the pole-chan ger in position to cause the electro-magnetic valve E to present a similar polarity toward its seat thus to produce a repulsion between the valve and its seat, which causes the valve to fall by gravitation to the bottom of the' chamber C, and thus to open avpassage for the gas through the pipe D `and the permanent magnet to the v burner, as indicated ,by the arrows in Fig. 2. Theplatinum wire f becomes heated toa white heat, and the gas issuing' from the burner is thereby ignited. l To shut oft' the gas the pole- -changer isshifted to change the direction of the current through the Wire F and reverse the polarity oty the electro-magnetic valve, thus causing the latter to present an opposite polarity toward its seat, land causing them to attract each other, and thereby causin g the valve to be raised to its seat and the lower orifice of the passage b to be closed andthe gasto be shut off from the burner.

The circuit through the WircF may be opened as soon as the gas is let on and ignited, or as .soon as it is shut off, as in the former case the coiled round the exterior of the valve-chamber where there is a break, which is closed by' a wire F, and with a key to open and close the at the bottom of the permanent magnet, and

weight of the valve keeps it open and in the latter the attraction of the permanent magnet keeps it closed.

A single battery may be made to light any number of burners, even to the whole number employed in a large building or the whole number of street-lamps in city, by leadinglthe conducting-Wire in a proper manner (which will at once suggest itself) from one burner or lamp to another.

I do not claim, broadly, the letting on of gas to burners by electricity, or thelighting of gas by heat generated in a platinum wire by a current of electricity passing through it but What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The arrangement and combination of the hollow permanent magnet A, valve-chamber C, coil F', electro-magnetic valve E, and tube D, as and for the purpose herein shown and described.

i lVitnesses:

, J. R. FOSTER,

W. B. C. STIRLING.

W. W. HOPKINS.' 

